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Human rights code to be amended to include the transgendered

The Ontario Human Rights Code will be amended to prevent discrimination against transgendered people.

By Robert BenzieQueen’s Park Bureau Chief

Tues., June 12, 2012

It’s not every day that history is made at Queen’s Park.

But Wednesday will be different.

That’s when the Ontario Human Rights Code is expected to be amended to add the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression” to prevent discrimination against transgendered people.

Thanks to the tenacity of NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo — with help from Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott and Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi — some of Ontario’s more marginalized residents will finally enjoy the same protections as the rest of society.

“This is absolutely historic. This will be the first jurisdiction in North America outside the Northwest Territories to have included trans people as full citizens truly and given them human rights along with everyone else,” DiNovo said Tuesday.

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“The time has come. Hats off to the trans lobbyists who been working on this for years and years,” she said of the bill known as Toby’s Act, after the late musician Toby Dancer, who led the gospel choir at Emmanuel Howard Park United Church where DiNovo ministered.

“We know there’s a 78 per cent attempted suicide rate in the trans community — that there’s a 48 per cent poverty rate. So this is a very marginalized and beleaguered community and they desperately need this to begin to right that.”

While the Parkdale—High Park MPP had tabled similar amendments to add “gender identity” and “gender expression” four times over the past six years, it wasn’t until Ontario’s minority legislature that she was able to secure enough support for passage.

Elliott (Whitby—Oshawa) and Naqvi (Ottawa Centre) co-sponsored DiNovo’s bill, which will likely be passed at around noon Wednesday.

“The time has come,” said Elliott, praising transgendered activists for never giving up. “Everyone’s rights need to be protected. It’s a breakthrough point.

“I really congratulate Cheri for her persistence to bring this forward and for the trans group to keep coming back with it . . . and educate us along the way.”

Naqvi noted the amendment coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Ontario Human Rights Code this Friday.

“Just like we did back in the 1980s with sexual orientation, we will now be protecting the rights of the trans community in Ontario,” he said, adding there remained a “lack of clarity” in the code when it came to discrimination on basis of “sex.”

“There is ambiguity because it was not categorically listed. What this does is ensure that we send a very clear message . . . and put in effect clear protection for the trans community in Ontario.”

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